Viral activity is the dream of many marketers, content creators, retailers, and businesses of all shapes and sizes. In truth it’s hard to find an example of a business that wouldn’t welcome at least a little viral activity every now and then. During this week I’d like to spend some time defining what viral means, examining some successful examples, and offering some insights on how you and your business might have a shot at achieving it.

Creating unique and compelling content can be both challenging and rewarding. Creating unique and compelling content and then seeing it gain little or no attention can be downright frustrating. Unfortunately many creators find themselves in this all too familiar position. With a little bit of planning and strategic placement, chances for viral activity can swing heavily in your favor.

Get your ducks in a row

Before even thinking about going viral, ask if you’ve set yourself up for success. If the goal is to promote a blog post then it would help if the blog post appeared on a great looking Wordpress site as opposed to a carelessly put together blogger.com site. (Nothing against blogger.com, but Wordpress is always one of the best options)

If you had an online photo website, it would be a big mistake to not considering grabbing a Flickr and Dailybooth account. If you’re promoting a band or a song then being a part of Myspace, Reverbnation, and Bandcamp is at least worth looking into.

Maybe your website looks great. How is your SEO? How do you rank on Google? Get your ducks in a row and your chances for exposure increase.

Encourage sharing.

There are ways to encourage sharing and there are ways to hinder it.

Activities that help:

Creating and maintaining an email list
Utilizing social bookmarking sites: Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon
Being Facebook friendly.  Having “Like” and sharing buttons
Reaching out to like minded bloggers, vloggers, and podcasters
Making genuine friendships and connections on and offline

Activities that don’t help:

Telling no one and hoping others somehow find your content
Limiting promotion to your immediate social circle
Using inappropriate social networking channels
Avoiding online promotion. Avoiding word of mouth promotion.
Acting generally unexcited about your offering

Hype it up

Want to make a big splash with a particular piece of content? Generate some buzz by setting a release date (not too far out) and then spreading the word up till that date. This works for both offline and online efforts.

Tap into your network

Reaching out to new contacts is important, but don’t neglect your current base of friends and supporters. Sending an email or a tweet to specific people who you believe would benefit from your material is more than acceptable and is often welcomed (however that doesn’t mean spamming or trying to force something unwanted upon your network).

Maybe your friends would benefit from your instructional YouTube video, online comic strip, or humor rich blog post. You might be surprised how many people are really in your corner when you actively seek them out.

Keep at it

Ultimately the viewers, readers, and listeners determine what goes viral and what remains in obscurity. By experimenting with new ideas and actively promoting your work, the likelihood of success will increase. Honest effort and a strong drive for constant improvement are critical.

Jason mKey is a blogger from Seattle WA.

When marketing your company to potential customers it is important to be considerate of people’s valuable time. No one wants their time wasted by a pushy sales person or an annoying ad that is selling something that is completely irrelevant to their needs and wants. The following article from Cool Marketing Stuff, discusses a new book about how businesses can more effectively attract customers by understanding the importance of time in consumer decisions.

Time is something that I think marketers often ignore or take for granted. Many marketers continue to push out a flood of messages through various channels like television, newspapers, and email although consumers do not have the time to receive these messages. Additionally consumers often will choose saving time over the added benefit of switching to a better product or service. In some cases, time can be your company’s biggest competitor. Time is the theme of the recent book, The 24-Hour Customer, which examines the role of time in consumer decisions and explains how marketers can design strategies that can overcome the problem of the time-starved consumer.

Dominate your customers time and they won’t have time for your competition

Webkinz is an extremely popular virtual world for kids that had 4.5 million unique visitors in January. With users spending an average of 154 minutes on the site each month, it was very hard for Beanie Babies World to compete. Since kids often have internet time limited by their parents, many are not able to also spend time on a different virtual world. I am a huge fan of the Madden game on Xbox and was willing to wait in line at midnight on release night to purchase it. There are other games that I would like to buy but I don’t because I wouldn’t have any time to play them since Madden dominates my time.

Create Dwell Time

The more time your customer spends in your store or website, the more likely they will buy something. According to the book, “Consulting firm Deloitte has found that customers that use a fitting room in a clothing store buy 85 percent of the time, compared with a 58 percent sales rate among shoppers who did not use the fitting room”. I think one easy way for retail stores to create dwell time is to provide comfortable chairs (or a secret hideout) for husbands who have to accompany their spouses to the mall.

Integrate Purchase Into Consumption
According to the book, “US customers spend only about six minutes a day with e-commerce sites”. However, Amazon is able to extend the time spent with a customer with the Amazon kindle. While the Kindle is great for consuming the books it sells, it also provides a way to purchase most books in under a minute from the same device. Nike also does this well with its Nike Plus site that tracks your runs with the help of the iPod sensor. While you are checking out your running stats, you can also view and order your next pair of running shoes.

Interesting Studies of Consumer Behavior

One reason I really like this book is that it is chalk full of interesting research on consumer behavior. Here are some findings that I that were really interesting.

• Only 42 percent of Americans report that they enjoy buying goods and services.

• Consumers are spending only about 28 minutes each day researching and buying goods and services -that’s less than 3 percent of waking hours.

• A 2009 comScore report estimates that 8 percent of internet users are responsible for 85 percent of all ad clicks.

• USC research estimates that 45 percent of people’s behavior is spent in repetitive and unthinking activities.

• A UK study found that shoppers tend to buy from a selection of the same 150 items every week from grocery stores.

• The Council for Research Excellence found that US adults spend an average of eight and a half hours a day looking at screens.

• US customers spend only about six minutes a day with e-commerce sites.

This book is a good choice of time for marketers who are interested in learning how to use limited time and attention to their advantage. Adrian Ott also lays out a solid framework on how to evaluate how your product or service as it relates to the consumer’s propensity to spend time and attention.

Full Disclosure: I received a review copy

This post has been republished from Cool Marketing Stuff.

Viral activity is the dream of many marketers, content creators, retailers, and businesses of all shapes and sizes. In truth it’s hard to find an example of a business that wouldn’t welcome at least a little viral activity every now and then. During this week I’d like to spend some time defining what viral means, examining some successful examples, and offering some insights on how you and your business might have a shot at achieving it.

It might seem like more fantasy then reality: a blog post gets thousands of views in a day, a video gets passed around via email and gathers attention, a relatively unknown song by a relatively unknown creator becomes instantly popular. It’s  possible and we both know it is because we’ve seen it happen before. Unfortunately viral activity is still somewhat of an enigma for most creators. It tends to linger high in the clouds and always seems unattainable. The recent Old Spice campaign worked well (with great acting, production, and strategic placement), but I’m  guessing you probably don’t have a budget to create content of that quality. The “Pants on the Ground” song became instantly popular last year (because it was hilarious), but I’m guessing you probably don’t have an American Idol sized audience.

There is hope for the small guys.

Believe there is. Dave Powers, a guy who started a YouTube channel earlier this year, is gaining some traction. With his clever and short home videos he is gaining a fair amount of attention and using it to help grow his business. The videos succeed because they use a combination of humor, informative tips, and brash opinions. It’s entertaining. It’s the type of stuff that begs to be shared.

Originality helps.

There is a lot of rehashed material on the web. Innovative ideas and new concepts command attention. The website Texts From Last Night is an example of a simple idea that is exploding. Users submit hilarious texts and the best ones rise to attention. All the content is user generated. A single text might get shared, but the whole site within itself is naturally viral. It’s uniquely cool and it’s fresh. Websites like Failblog and Addicttinggames.com built themselves an empire over time because they were the go to places for great material.

Being damn good really helps.

It is a fact that any given article on TechCrunch or Seth Godin’s blog is going to be a hit. Both have built reputations over time of being great information sources. They couldn’t have a bad posting day even if they wanted to. The good news is that everyone has to start from somewhere and momentum can be gained at a surprisingly fast rate. Take two of my favorite bloggers for example: Laura Roeder and Mars Dorian. Neither of these bloggers are household names, but they create really really really solid posts. So solid that they are naturally sharable. Laura’s website is very simple, easy to use, and has a relatively no frills approach. The most important part is that her blog posts are good. Damn good. Followers want to share them and retweet them. Mars Dorian has a different, but equally intriguing style. His material is fun and full of personality. His energetic writing voice is addictive and makes readers want to spread the love. A chance of one of his posts going viral is far greater then that of your average boring business blogger.

Be a student.

Examining successful examples is highly recommended. Viral material has certain traits and falls into certain patterns. Find what works and throw in a little bit of creativity and your chances increase exponentially. In Part 3 we’ll have a look at how to get your content in front of more people in order to increase your chances of a major victory. Stay tuned.

Read Part 3

SEO can be a tremendous investment for a businesses that can result in huge returns in the form of free organic traffic that can turn into leads that can be converted into sales. For example, Slingshot SEO recently calculated that owning a spot on the first page of Google for the term “health care insurance” has a 5 year net present value of nearly $100 million.

1. SEO provides ongoing value

The analogy has been made that SEO is like buying a home, whereas Pay Per Click is like renting a home. With SEO, if you invest resources into ranking highly for a lot of keyword phrases, you can continue to receive traffic even if you stop spending time and money. With PPC, if you stop paying money, your traffic stops immediately.

2. SEO can be a competitive advantage

Rand Fishkin wrote an article at SEOMoz titled “Yup, SEO Can be a Competitive Advantage” he argues that earning superior SEO authority in the eyes of search engines than your competitors can be an advantage that is difficult for them to duplicate. The number 1 result typically gets a high majority of clicks, so your business can easily attract far more site traffic than your competitors by outranking them (According to AOL data, the very top position in search results receives 42.25% of all click-through traffic). For your competitor to outrank you, they will need more quality links than you, but this can take a long time if you have a lead and continue to build links.

3. Your customers are using search to find products and services

According to the book Marketing in the Age of Google, “50 percent of online Americans use search engines every day and over 90 percent use search engines every month.”. In his presentations, David Meerman Scott asks his audience how many people have recently responded to direct mail and a handful of people raise their hands. Then he asks how many people have turned to mass media like TV, radio, and newspapers to learn about a product and about one fifth raise their hands. Then he asks how many people have used Google to research a product or service in the past month and everyone raises their hands. Clearly, search engines have become the number one tool that people use to find information on products and services, so owning the top spot for searches when customers are actively searching for something to buy can be incredibly valuable.

4. If your competitor is beating you at SEO they are probably taking business from you
If your competitors are effectively executing an SEO strategy that has their site ranking above yours for top keywords, then you could be losing a lot of business to them. There is a major drop off in click through rate between the first and second positions on the first page. If your competitors are not doing SEO, it is very possible to dominate multiple positions on the first page of rankings and get a majority of searchers to check out your site.

5. SEO requires time
If you think you can delay SEO until some time in the future, you may run into trouble. Gaining authority in the eyes of search engines requires time, and it can be very difficult to outrank a site that has been around for years and has built a stockpile of content and links. Even if you can only invest a little into SEO now, it is usually still worth doing. Putting deposits into your SEO now, can pay off significantly in the future.

If you have any questions about SEO, email info@sparkplugdigital.com.

Viral activity is the dream of many marketers, content creators, retailers, and businesses of all shapes and sizes. In truth its hard to find an example of a business that wouldn’t welcome at least a little viral activity every now and then. During this week I’d like to spend some time defining what viral means, examining some successful examples, and offering some insights on how you and your business might have a shot at achieving it.

Whenever a person or business says they create viral videos, projects, or marketing campaigns I always have to raise an eyebrow. Red flags go up when I see this due to the fact that content going viral isn’t decided by the creator. It’s decided by the viewer. It’s decided by you and me, the consumers. Real viral traction occurs when information is constantly being spread, when people are forwarding it in emails, when retweets are happening like crazy, when there is constant chatter on and off the web, and when traffic comes from many places and extends across the globe.

Spread it around

The viral internet marketing concept is rooted in the same fashion as a computer virus is. Someone inherits the idea/virus and then through the sharing actions of that person it spreads to other viewers. An image, blog article, photo, product, song, video, text message, quote, joke, website, and even an idea can all go viral. Almost anything can go viral if it’s of high quality, is naturally sharable, and has relevancy to a large sector of people.

In his book Viral Loop, author Adam Penenberg lays out case studies of companies that have proven themselves and turned extremely viral. He showcases an example where one of the creators of the website Hot or Not (a dating and photo rating site) told someone about the site and later observed that the person ended up telling many friends and they told friends and so on and so on. Word of mouth was so high that within the first week of launching over two million visitors were visiting the site on a daily basis.

Why does it go viral?

The perplexing thing about viral marketing and highly sharable content is that sometimes it comes out of nowhere and the reasons for success aren’t always obvious. There is reason to believe that some successful examples are simple cases of being at the right place at the right time, however there are things the can be done to push the odds in your favor. Stay tuned, in my next post I’ll look at some successful examples of viral content and share some ideas on how you might follow suit in your own efforts.

Read Part 2

Thanks for reading the Sparkplug blog! Do you have any specific recommendations on how we can improve the look, functionality, and overall reader experience? I would love to hear them. Leave a comment or send an email to info@sparkplugdigital.com

In 1863 president Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, one of the most prolific and respected speeches in United States history. The speech was delivered in front of 15,000 observers and although your blogging audience may be a fraction of that number, there’s a lot that can be learned from Lincoln’s writing.

Give it Time

A popular myth is that Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address on a train only mere hours before giving the speech. It has also been rumored that he quickly wrote it on the back of a napkin or an envelope, however the truth is far less extravagant. Lincoln actually took a lot of time preparing the speech and ended up writing five different drafts before deciding on the final version.

One way to improve your blogging is to give it more time. A blog post that is written in half an hour, edited in 10 minutes and then published immediately will probably fall short on its potential for quality. Some of the best bloggers spend over a week revising and thinking about a post before publishing. There’s a fine line between procrastination and submitting work before its ready. Don’t take more time then you need, but don’t do your readers a disservice and put something out that’s fast and sloppy.

Cut Out the Excess Material

The Gettysburg Address is very well written and carries a lot of meaning. The interesting thing is that it conveys so much while at the same time being very brief and to the point. The speech itself was about two minutes long and was written in only ten sentences.

Next time you sit down and write out an 800 word blog post consider how many of those words are actually needed. Being brief and to the point will often pack a much stronger punch than an overdrawn and lengthy piece will. Long pieces have their place, but as a rule thumb don’t make the post longer then it needs to be. If it takes a lot of words to get your idea out then considering refining it and making it simpler.

Create History

Lincoln’s speech has stood the test of time and will be remembered forever. Although Lincoln was one of the most popular presidents of all time and his speech came at a pivotal time in the countries history, your blogging efforts may have more impact then you think. A well written blog can bring increased attention to your business and the products or services that you offer. A well written blog can increase traffic to your website and lead to new connections and relationships amongst other like minded bloggers. A blog can open doors. Quality writing never goes out of style.

Read more about the history of the Gettysburg Address

]]> http://www.sparkplugdigital.com/blogging-lessons-from-lincoln/feed/ 0 http://www.sparkplugdigital.com/the-new-customer-service-tool/ http://www.sparkplugdigital.com/the-new-customer-service-tool/#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:00:13 +0000 Jason mKey http://www.sparkplugdigital.com/?p=1138

If your customer just purchased, there is a customer service opportunity.
if you care

If your customer has yet to purchase, there is a customer service opportunity.
if you look for it

If your customer isn’t even your customer, there is a customer service opportunity.
if you look hard for it

If your customer is happy, there is a customer service opportunity.
if you dare to exceed expectations

If your customer is upset, furious, loud and has a lot of friends then you know very well that there is a customer service opportunity. Except it’s no longer just an opportunity, it has also become a vital requirement that you get involved. And FAST.

The opportunities are everywhere.

1-800 help numbers, email, online chat support, and “old fashioned” communication are a few of the tools in the toolbox.

The problem isn’t that the tools no longer work, it’s just that they’ve gotten a little rusty. They still do what they are suppose to, but aren’t always as effective as they use to be.

Within the past year or so a new option has come into play. It’s called Twitter. Maybe you’ve heard of it?

Unfortunately it doesn’t come with a very good owners manual and a lot of people are still scratching their head when it comes to figuring out how to operate it to its full potential. Today brands small and large are still working out the formula. Starbucks appears to be doing well. Comcast appears to get it. There are some other examples, but what about the other 99%? Results range from good to just passable to outright clueless. Nonetheless, we need to stick it out.

Because it’s worth it.

Twitter is a unique platform that allows for opportunities that just aren’t possible with traditional methods. It puts a person behind the brand. It’s communication in a public forum. It says I care and says it loudly in an open forum for all to see.

I have observed very negative tweeters turn into die hard fans all due to the fact that someone somewhere was listening and had the authority, the common sense, and the means to send out 140 or less characters in response.

If used properly, twitter can breed long term customer loyalty.

Don’t get rid of your customer support phone number just yet…

Twitter won’t replace the telephone, but it will change how you approach making customers happy. @AlaskaAir has 3 people on staff who run their account and they do an excellent job at identifying communication opportunities. They can’t respond to every single tweet that mentions @AlaskaAir, but they find ways to still be very active. Twitter hasn’t replaced their traditional outlets, it’s just enhanced the overall customer relations picture and it’s working out quite well for them.

We are still only seeing the mere tip of the iceberg of Twitters customer service potential.

The tool is in place. It’s right in front of us.
Now lets learn how to use it.
Your customers will thank you for it. Maybe even in the form of a tweet.

When it comes to online marketing, blogging, and SEO there is always going to be roadblocks and obstacles that are standing between you and your business’s goals. Sometimes these obstacles may appear overwhelming. For example:

• Gaining 1000 blog subscribers
• Increasing PageRank on Google
• Finding independent advertising for your website
• Getting backlinks from high ranking websites
• Receiving funding or donations for a project

No matter what particular obstacle(s) you come across there is bound to be difficult challenges that show up. I’m reminded of the age old saying that anything worth doing doesn’t come easy. Although it may be true to a certain extent,  sometimes we tend to make tasks harder then they need to be. When you’re uncertain or hesitant on how to proceed, I suggest trying the just ask method.

It’s easy

The just ask method is fairly self explanatory. Whenever you want something, just ask for it.

It really is that simple

If you want to guest blog then just ask if you can. Take 3 minutes to type up an email and then click send. Worst case scenario is that you get a no or no response. Best case scenario is that you get a yes and you’ve accomplished what you set out to do and got what you wanted. If you ask enough people and do so with a little thought and sincerity then you’re bound to eventually get a yes. Maybe a yes from someone who you never imagined would even say it.

If you want someone to link back to your site, how about asking them to do so?

If you want more blog comments, how about asking your readers for their thoughts?

If you want people to give you money for your product, how about actually asking them to buy it and making it 100% clear that you are a for profit business and that the customer actually needs what you’re offering?

I’m not a psychologist and I’m far from an expert when it comes to human behavior, but I have a little hunch that a primary reason people aren’t receiving what they want is due to the fact that they aren’t communicating the fact that they actually want it.

If I want more repeat visitors to my website then it’s  probably a good idea to gather contact information and create an email list. Yes my website should look good and yes my content needs to be great and yes and I need to genuinely connect with visitors in a unique way and give them a reason to return, but on top of all that asking for the email address will only help. I guarantee that your visitors won’t go out of their way to contact you and ask to be put on an email list, however they just might give you their email if you have a call to action on your site and request it.

When it doubt use the just ask method.

If you didn’t ask that girl or guy that you had a crush on out to senior prom, then odds are that he or she would end up going with someone else. It would be a shame to loose opportunities just because you didn’t ask for them.

Try it. Consider the benefits. What do you have to loose?

There is a battle brewing between the social media “purists” and the social media “realists” as to how important measurement of social media ROI is.

This was brought up at the recent Social Media Club Seattle event when social media legend Jason Falls took the stage to argue for social media pragmatism. He made a lot of good points like how at the end of the day business success depends on whether you sell more stuff (or services). He quoted an apartment building owner who says that if a social media tactic is not resulting in new customers then he stops doing it. Falls argues that there is nothing wrong with putting call to actions in your social media, like a big call to action banner on your blog that says “Now Accepting New Clients” or a Twitter link to your product page or landing page.

But is this short-sighted thinking when it comes to a marketing medium that revolves around relationships and being social?

On the other side of the fence are thought-leaders like David Meerman Scott who argues that no one ever asks what the ROI is of a front desk receptionist or for the people who do lawn maintenance in front of your office.

Ian Lurie, from Seattle-based Portent Interactive writes the following in the book Age of Conversation 3: “Did you consider ROI before you decided to be courteous to customers?…Ponder the ROI of answering the phone?…You did it because you just knew it made sense.”

Albert Einstein makes a good point when he said “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

If Zappos based all decisions on ROI, they might not offer free return shipping, or surprise overnight shipping, or superior 24/7 customer service. These are all expensive activities that are extremely difficult to measure in relation to short-term sales. However, Zappos has a long term approach and CEO Tony Hsieh knew that having the very best service and wowing your customers was a competitive advantage, an advantage that led to their company surpassing $1 billion in sales.

I think that it makes good sense that talking to your customers, listening to their feedback, and other benefits of social media will help your business in the long run. However, if you need to support your marketing activities with data, there are definitely ways to do this like measuring sales from a call to action like Jason Falls recommends.

Here is Jason Falls’ great presentation at SMC Seattle:

Photo credit: Paul Gillin

In Delivering Happiness, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh describes his journey in building Link Exchange which sold for about $200 million and Zappos which was recently acquired by Amazon for about $1 billion. The book is written like an autobiography and is very honest and open. You learn some interesting things about him like how he quit his first job at Oracle basically because he was bored and walked away from 20% of his $40 million share of Link Exchange because he didn’t want to stay at the company for another year. He also shares the lessons he learned and insights into his successful approach. Here are some of the marketing lessons I took away from reading Delivering Happiness:

Focus on existing customers
Early in Zappos history, the company struggled to survive and did not have money for a marketing budget. So out of necessity they focused on existing customers. This strategy worked very well as the company grew to over a billion dollars on sales, mostly from repeat purchases. According to the book Flip the Funnel by Joseph Jaffe, 75% of Zappos’ sales comes from repeat customers.

Get PR by continuously wowing your customer
Zappos gets a tremendous amount of good PR, but Hsieh says that they did not actively try to push their messages into the news. Often someone would report on something that Zappos had been doing for years and it would spread like wildfire. By doing remarkable things for their customers, employees and even vendors they received a ton of attention, even though some members of board sometimes referred to Zappos’ unique approaches as “Tony’s social experiments”.

Surprise your customer by overdelivering
One way that Zappos provides exceptional service is by providing customers with surprise overnight shipping. Some customers’ orders are delivered to their doorstep the very next morning which provides a remarkable experience worth sharing.

Create a great customer experience
Early on, Zappos made most of its profits from drop shipping products to customers, however this could result is dissatisfaction if an item on the website was not available from the manufacturer at a given time. So Zappos made the decision to halt its profitable drop shipping segment and only sell items that are held in their warehouse.

Create a great culture
Working at a call center is not typically a glamorous job and as a result many companies have disengaged employees who are directly interacting with customers. Zappos created a great culture that focuses on the people of the company, which has helped create highly engaged customer service agents that provide superior service to customers. Employees are encouraged to take company sponsored courses so that they can grow and get promoted, and Zappos consistently demonstrates that they care about their employees by paying for a funeral reception or giving every employee a Kindle when they sold to Amazon.

Ultimately people want to be happy
Tony is interested in the science of happiness and integrates findings from the field of positive psychology into his business. By providing employees with a greater purpose and opportunities for growth rather than focus on monetary rewards, Zappos employees are highly motivated. He also understands that experiences contribute to happiness more than material possession, thus the focus on customer experience. Towards the end of the book he asks the simple but often overlooked question “what is your goal in life?”. If you follow up that question with a lot of “whys”, you will eventually get to the answer that is essentially “because I want to be happy”. This revelation has lead to the latest iteration of Zappos’ brand promise, “delivering happiness”.

This post has been republished from Cool Marketing Stuff